Arsenal v Manchester City Match Preview

After a trying week, Arsenal have one last chance to consider themselves a dark horse in the title race with the visit of Manchester City on Saturday evening.

A heavy defeat to Chelsea, a gut wrenching late draw against Swansea and a string of injuries to big players has raised concerns about Arsenal's run in petering out after the season had previously looked so promising.

Manchester City meanwhile know that the league title is in their hands, with games in hand to their avail. They comfortably dismissed Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday night and have won 6 of their last 7 away matches.

It would be difficult to make Arsenal favourites for this game, but their form at the Emirates has been good this season. Pellegrini has clearly fixed City's troubling early season away form.

Arsenal are realistically, looking over their shoulders as much as they are looking ahead. A victory would signficantly lift the mood ahead of trips to Goodison Park and Wembley.

Arsene Wenger insists his team need to start on the front foot in the bigger games, last season this fixture was effectively ended inside ten minutes with the sending off of Laurent Koscielny. It's important for Arsenal's confidence that they don't fall behind early in this one. Both teams will want to defend better than they did in the reverse fixture.

Vital Quotes:

Arsene Wenger was bouyant ahead of his side's clash with Manchester City, 'It's all to go for I think, for everybody,' the Frenchman told the club's official website.

'Everybody speaks about Everton coming back on us (and challenging for fourth place). Why should we then not come back on the teams who are in front of us?

'There's still a lot of turning games that will happen until the end of the season. But it's down to the quality of our performances.

'We don't think about the title race now, we think about winning again. So for us just to recover in a positive way against Swansea was very important.

'Now from that game, be positive again and win the next one.'

'There is no other priority other than coming first,' said Wenger. 'That is still our target.

It is the next game that is of course very important, and the next game is of massive importance because it is Man City and they fight at the top.

'They are the favourites with Chelsea and Liverpool, but when you play one of the favourites, you have an opportunity to shorten the distance to them.'

Arsenal were beaten 6-3 at the Etihad in December but have not lost a league game at home since the opening day of the season, and Wenger said: 'We play at the Emirates where we show big strengths and we want to show that again.

'There are plenty of positives to take from the game at the Etihad. But of course we must defend better.'

Manuel Pelligrini believes a win at the Emirates all but puts paid to one of City's title rivals, but doesn't believe it will be decisive in deciding the title's ultimate destination.

''We started a very good week, we hope we finish in the same way,' added Pellegrini. 'It's important for the players, club and fans to win the derby and we must continue to try to win the next match and try to win the title.

'It's a big game against Arsenal because it's against a team that is also fighting for the title. If we win on Saturday, we can be 12 points ahead of Arsenal if we also win the two games we have in hand on them. So it's a massive match, but not a match that will decide the title.

'Maybe Arsenal didn't have a good week, but they continue being a very good team. They are playing at home, they have very good players and we will need to play a good game if we want to win.'

'For all the big teams, they must always be under pressure to win titles,' said Pellegrini.

'The ambition must always be to win as much as you can, every year, for every big team.'

Player to watch: Santi Cazorla

With so many kinetic, attacking players missing and with Arsenal also denied the creative talents of Mesut Özil, one would expect Cazorla to offer both goalscoring and creative threat.

It's a big responsibility for sure, but it's one he's shouldered rather unconvincingly thus far in an unconvincing season by his exalted standards.

Giroud cannot continue to fight entire back fours alone as he had to for large swathes of the Swansea game. His midfielders need to get closer to him and given Cazorla's previous goal returns, Saturday would be a good time for him to start dictating proceedings.

Manchester City Team News:

Manchester City are still without Sergio Aguero, who has been troubled by a hamstring injury all season. David Silva is expected to be fit after an ankle knock in the Manchester derby.

Best of Vital Network

Comments

0

I think we will start brightly and prove a lot of doubters wrong in our ability against the big teams. Ultimately I think we will lose because our team have been decimated by injuries. 3-1 City. The back 5 * Giroud pick themselves, who do you think plays in the midfield?

The stats are a lot better than I thought they'd be however early goals being conceded have had poor results and knocked our confidence. I don't recall us really coming back to win from losing positions much this season. Remember when we use to soak pressure up and score late in the 2nd half? Yeah? Well i'd rather we get back to doing that!

Hey, I am a romantic.
Hope to see another "smash-and-grab" raid with us scoring within 5 minutes and then defence with guts and Lady Luck to win 1-0.
I wouldn't look at stats nor past performances ... but at who is hungriest and who will turn-up for this match, putting lives and limbs in harm's way to win by hook or by crock.

The way I see it, we need to look to get a result that can boost confidence, other than the general prediction of a loss: a hard fought draw. My concern is that Wenger's words suggest he would take the same approach as in the reverse: go gung-ho for the win. It is important that the team balances attacking with defending. Theo was responsible for much of our threat at the Etihad and we know he is unavailable for this. A complete team performance is required.